We reserve the right to refuse flat-earthers
by unforgetabELLE
Summary: "Fuck you too, geodesy," she muttered, glaring at the symbolic cup, when god himself seemed to intervene. A clunk of ceramic against wood caught her attention and her eyes darted to a freshly brewed, still steaming cup of coffee. Her gaze wandered up, meeting his glimmering green eyes. "Don't tell me you're a flat earther," Adrien, her now favorite barista, quipped.


Marinette sat in the plush velvet chair, the aroma of flat whites and sugared lattes dancing around her, and cursed the evil that was her physics textbook. Her midterm research spread out before her, she couldn't remember the last time she'd felt so incompetent, which was demoralizing even more in a class that was designed as "science for non-science majors". Of course, she'd brought this on herself. Not only had she waited until her last semester of university-the one completely packed with her senior capstone design project-to take this general requirement, but she'd chosen the online class option on top of that. It was convenient, meaning she could work around her design schedule and her shifts at Tikki's boutique, but it also meant she procrastinated, pushing any classwork into the time left over, which usually happened to be between the hours of one and four in the morning.

Then, already floundering but somehow surviving the first half of the course, she'd foolishly chosen _goedesy_ as her field of applied physics to research for the midterm paper.

 _Maps_ , she'd thought simply _, I like maps. Maps can be beautiful and artistic! Geodesy is kind of the basis for maps. That'll be perfect_.

Flash-forward two weeks to the night before her paper was due, and Marinette stared at the gibberish-filled, ten-page concoction with disillusionment. Yes, maps _were_ pretty, but geodesy was the ugly, behind the scenes mess that made them possible and Marinette was drowning in the technical lingo. Satellite sensors? Oblate spheroids? Geoids? Gravitational models? It was too much, and Marinette's 2am brain couldn't deal.

It didn't help, of course, that she had developed a ridiculous crush on her TA and would meet him in person for the first time the next day to hand in said disaster of a paper.

Marinette closed her eyes and rubbed her temples in exhaustion, realizing that even in her sleep-deprived state, the fact that she kinda-sorta had feelings for a man whose face she'd never seen still made no sense. But he was witty, and their email chains that started with her desperate for explanation, had gradually devolved into conversations of everyday life. Recently, there had been an undertone of _almost_ flirting, and Marinette couldn't find it in her to be mad. He was just a graduate student afterall, it wasn't like he was her professor, and she'd started it. After rolling her eyes at his ridiculous schrodinger's cat joke he'd sent once, not to mention the cat emojis and abundance of puns, when Marinette stumbled upon the perfect cat meme one day, she couldn't help but sent it to him. Their conversation had turned into a meme war from there, and Marinette had been more than a little smitten ever since.

He was kind and patient. He made her laugh, and even though she knew it was probably just some daydream her brain fabricated to make the class more bearable, she couldn't help but smile everytime he emailed back. She most definitely had a crush and it was making her unreasonably nervous to meet him for the first time tomorrow lest she discover the flirtatious vibe he'd been putting out was merely a figment of her imagination.

What she wasn't imagining, though, was the quality of this paper, and more than a little of her wanted to impress him with it. She really needed to get back to work.

Marinette reached blindly for her coffee mug, lifting it to her lips robotically only to place the cold cup back down on the table in disdain. It was empty; its life-sustaining contents long gone, just like her chances of passing this midterm.

"Fuck you too, geodesy," she muttered, glaring at the symbolic cup, when god himself seemed to intervene. A clunk of ceramic against wood caught her attention and her eyes darted to a freshly brewed, still steaming cup of coffee. Her gaze wandered, following the elegant fingers wrapped around the handle to the gently toned forearm. Moving up past the rolled sleeves of his light green henley, her vision finally halted in wonder at his glimmering green eyes and golden hair only partially obscured under the regulation black baseball hat.

"Don't tell me you're a flat earther," Adrien, her now favorite barista, quipped as he released the cup and smirked down at her.

"If I say yes, do you think I could get out of writing this assignment on the premise that it directly contradicts my most fundamental beliefs?"

"Sure,"Adrien allowed before looking sadly down at the fresh cup of heaven. "But then I'd have to take your coffee privileges away. I don't think your deluded thinking should be fueled by more caffeine."

He reached for the mug, but Marinette's hands wrapped protectively around the treasure, dragging it closer to her across the table.

"The earth is round!" She screeched, much to the amusement of the only other crazy person still at the coffee house at 2 am. "Well," she amended. "It's an oblate spheroid."

"See!" Adrien exclaimed, spinning a chair and sitting with his legs on either side and chin resting on the back. "Geodesy is fun. It's physics in action!"

"You're a weirdo, but I love you because you bring me coffee," Marinette responded to the blonde boy's excited babble. Moving to take a sip of liquid gold, she nearly choked as he threw her one of his most dashing smiles in return. Not the model smiles of the Adrien Agreste she'd had plastered on her walls during high school. Not even the polite smiles that kept her tongue tied during the first few years she frequented the coffee house. No, it was the goofy, lopsided grin of the dork she's come to know during her long nights designing, and more recently, researching in the small cafe. They didn't know each other well, not really. He knew she was in the art school and she knew he was was a graduate student in some kind of science, but other than that, their relationship consisted of friendly banter and grateful smiles.

Come to think of it, this might be the longest conversation they'd ever had, and Marinette was momentarily distracted imagining how her fifteen-year-old self would squeal over her growth.

"What class is this for?" Adrien reached down, and started flipping through some of her research absentmindedly.

"This online physics class I have to pass if I want to graduate," Marinette whined, sinking back into the armchair and savoring the warmth of the mug in her hand. "You're in science," she remarked. "Do you know Professor Plagg?"

She watched as Adrien's body convulsed once, his mouth seeming to sputter on nothing but air before he composed himself and cleared his throat to respond.

"Yeah, I know him. You're taking his online class?" His eyes were still trained on the papers in his hands as if they were the most interesting things in the world, and Marinette wondered if she'd underestimated his level of nerd.

"It's the _science for non-science majors_ class, and I'm well on my way to proving that there needs to be a _science for science-idiots_ version."

"Come on," Adrien finally looked up at her. "It can't be that bad."

"Oh, but it is," Marinette laughed, appreciative as she was for his words of encouragement. "If it weren't for my TA, I would have failed by now. God bless, _AA_ , ridiculously charming schrodinger's cat obsession and puns aside."

She glanced down into her coffee cup, slightly hypnotized by the swirling patterns of the milk in its chocolate depths. Looking back up, she caught Adrien's bewildered expression.

"AA," he repeated in a daze and she just rolled her eyes.

"We only go by our initials," she explained with a wave of her hand, delighted to have an excuse to procrastinate from work and trying to distract from the blush that rose to her cheeks just at the mention of his initials. She must be mad. "With the grading TA's at least. It's supposed to protect anonymity and prevent grading bias. I'm MC."

"You're MC," Adrien repeated, a smile overtaking his face. She narrowed her eyes curiously, but answered.

"Well, M _D_ C, but that extra letter apparently caused too much confusion," Marinette started to babble, seeming unable to stop herself. She blamed it on too much caffeine. Definitely not his entrancingly green eyes or the cute dimple in his left cheek she'd never noticed until just now.

"Mari," Adrien stated, cutting off her rambles.

"Adrien?" She returned, trying to maintain eye contact but cringing under his stare. It wasn't unkind, but it wasn't the polite or joking look she'd grown used to from him. He was looking at her, and she suddenly felt exposed. As if in this conversation was a turning point for them, and they went from being _coffee_ friends to _real_ friends, whatever that was supposed to mean.

Great, now even her internal monologue was spewing nonsense. Friends were friends. She was just bitter that she wore her heart so obviously on her sleeve, and even after one comment, Adrien could see that she was besotted with her faceless, online TA.

"You're blushing," Adrien noted, confirming her suspicions. His face held a mixture of pride and bewilderment and Marinette felt her face flame further. How she ended up talking to her old crush about her new crush, she'd never understand. The fact that her _old crush_ was decidedly working his way back into the _current crush_ category, she deliberately chose not to dwell on.

"I am, aren't I?" She responded, lifting her still warm hands from her mug to her cheeks, frowning in annoyance as her traitorous coloring. "It's just-oh god, I can't believe I'm saying this but-is it ridiculous to be in love with a complete stranger?"

Adrien's expression morphed in slow-motion, his eyes widening and jaw dropping at a comical pace. After a minute of silence, she spoke again.

"Adrien?"

"Mari?" He squeaked back.

"You're blushing," she noticed with surprise and watched as his cheeks colored a darker mauve shade. It really wasn't fair. Here she was looking like a blotchy, overripe tomato and across from her, boy-wonder turns a color she wished she could capture and design an entire clothing line around. The boy had _literally_ just blushed her favorite color. What was she supposed to do with that?

"Uh huh," Adrien managed back, his adam's apple bobbing as he swallowed forcibly.

"It's because _I am_ being ridiculous, isn't it? It's crazy! I've only ever talked to him online!" She threw her hands up in the air, and leaned back into the chair. "You want to know the worst part? Literally, half of his responses are puns. Puns! I don't even like puns!"

"What!?" Adrien finally seemed to snap back to normal, his face incredulous.

"I know, right?" Marinette shook her head. "What kind of man talks in forty percent puns? It's infuriating!"

"Infuriating?" Adrien muttered, his face contorting as he tried to hide his shit-eating grin. "Almost like a...pun-ishment?"

Marinette glared at him.

"You're not helping."

Adrien laughed, his entire body vibrating joyfully as his head fell back in abandon.

"Come on, Mari. You have to admit, I'm kind of _punny."_

"No," Marinette grumbled, grabbing her coffee mug and attempting to hide her face, and the ridiculous smile his laugh had put there, out of view. It would only fuel his pun-ego. She took a sip, only to find she'd once again hit bottom.

Eyes darting to Adrien, she blinked at him, looking up through her lashes, a small frown on her face.

"Adrien?" She asked softly, placing the mug on the table and pushing it silently towards him.

He blinked back, seemingly stunned and unable to break eye contact.

"Huh?"

Marinette paused, concentrating for a moment as to not break her expression and blessing all those years of babysitting Manon for teaching her this trick. She widened her eyes, tilting her head ever so slightly.

"Could you…" she glanced down at the mug and then back at him, sending a small smile his way.

He managed to break eye contact, and seemingly the spell with it, taking in the empty coffee cup in horror.

"I'm cutting you off," he grabbed the cup quicker than her tired mind could even react and walked behind the counter. She watched him go, shoulders slumped and frown exaggerated.

"No! But Adrien, I _need_ it! Please! I'm going to fail without my coffee!"

"You've had three cups in the last two hours, and don't think Juleka didn't tell me about the 3 others you had before my shift started!"

Marinette slumped into her seat, mumbling angrily about her childhood friend's lack of loyalty.

"You need sleep," Adrien finished and she just huffed.

"My midterm is a mess!" She cried. "I waited too long to ask for help, thinking I could handle it on my own. No," she stopped, getting angrier at herself the longer she spoke. "No, I thought I could impress him. I'm always asking so many questions, and I just wanted to prove to everyone-to _him_ \- that I could do it alone."

She felt tears spring to her eyes, her emotions running rampant as she bordered on hour 22 of being awake.

"And now I'm going to fail and even AA, were he awake and willing, can't help me."

She met Adrien's eyes from where he stood at the sink, his gaze softening as he took in her words, before flopping her head down onto her folded arms.

A rustling was the only sound that responded to her as Marinette took deep, calming breaths and tried to pull herself together.

The click of ceramic against wood caught her attention and she turned her head, peeking one eye open.

"Tea," Adrien emphasized, before pushing the mug in front of her. "You're not alone. And, for the record, I think being willing to ask for help or-as you put it-ask too many questions, is a strength."

"Yeah, sure," Marinette muttered, but Adrien narrowed his eyes at her.

"I'm serious! My whole life, I was expected to be exemplary at everything and I skated through learning just enough to get the perfect A's that were demanded of me, but never asking the questions I _really_ wanted to know for fear of looking stupid to other people. But you," Adrien smiled. "I wish I had been more like you. I wish I had the courage to ask when I didn't know instead of just pretending to already have the answers."

Marinette stared at him, her eyes inexplicably filling with more tears.

"Now let's conquer geodesy," Adrien grabbed her paper to see what she'd written so far, his face hardening in determination. Marinette just looked at him in awe.

But he wasn't done.

"And leave AA to me. If he wasn't already impressed with you," Adrien muttered under his breath. "He'd be a fucking idiot."

She crossed her arms down on the table, laying her head against them again as she watched Adrien read through what she had and waited for his verdict. He flipped page after page, grabbing a red pencil from her stash and marking the paper with deadly efficiency. After ten minutes of underlining sections and adding notes, he finally placed the finished paper down. She didn't move to touch it.

"What's the diagnosis?"

"You're not ridiculous," Adrien answered, sliding his baseball hat off his head and running his fingers through his hair. He didn't even have hat-hair. Jerk.

"Excuse me?" She reached for the paper indignantly. She knew it wasn't _great_ , but she never thought it was anywhere near _ridiculous._

"To fall in love with someone you've never met. Actually," he smiled fondly. "I understand the feeling well."

"Oh," she looked up at him, surprised they were still talking about her _definitely_ ridiculous love life. "Well, then we can be crazy and in love together."

He regarded her for a moment, his eyes pensive, but she didn't feel uncomfortable under the intensity of his gaze.

"But," she hedged, aware of how she could get lost in his eyes and ever-cognisant of the ticking clock on her deadline. "The paper?"

"It's actually really good! The info is all there, you just need to change it around so it reads clearer." His face animated a bit. "I'm _paw_ -sitive cat-boy will be im- _purr_ -essed."

She rolled his eyes at his teasing puns, but then she started to take in his edits. Somehow, with just some minor adjustments, he'd managed to make the flow one hundred times better, and she was actually starting to think she might not fail.

"Have I mentioned that I love you?" She looked up at him as he moved to clear the table of her empty mugs.

His mischievous smile was back.

"Actually, _Purr-_ incess, you have."

She rolled her eyes again, still flipping through the pages, surprised at how helpful each note was. He hadn't actually changed anything, and wasn't doing any of the work for her, but his suggestions and hints pointed to where she was going wrong, and suddenly the discombobulated mess started to make sense. It was like he was _meant_ to be a teacher.

"Yes, but that was coffee-devotion," she murmured, still flipping through the pages. "This is now _physics_ -devotion. You're a godsend, but would you quit it with the puns? How on earth did I manage to find _two_ of you?"

She shook her head and absentmindedly grabbed a pen out of her hair, letting the bun it held in place collapse around her shoulders as she rearranged a citation according to his recommendations and changed the paragraph ordering. Errant strands of hair curled by her bun started to fall into her face and she blew at them in irritation. It was reaching nearly her waist now; she really needed to cut it.

"One," Adrien's response came out in a breathy whisper a few moments too late. She looked up, flipping to the last page as she registered the gobsmacked expression on his face. Tossing her hair behind her back, she furrowed her brow at him, but couldn't figure out what had made him look so spooked.

"What?"

"You managed to find _one_ of us. Well, one of _me_ ," Adrien responded slowly, still standing motionless behind the counter while she looked at him in confusion.

"Okay, barista-boy. Clearly, I'm not the only one a little sleep-deprived here," she gave him an amused smile, before turning away to finish going through the notes on her final page.

That's when she saw it.

The final note.

 _Great work, M_ _ **D**_ _C ~AA_

She froze, her body seeming to reject the possibility that this could be happening.

AA

 **A** drien **A** greste

Her teenage crush turned favorite barista turned friend turned... anonymous grow-up crush?

Could it really be that simple?

Had she really _accidentally_ fallen for the same man multiple times in one lifetime?

The scrape of a chair brought her attention back to the present, and her head whipped to where said man was now sitting next to her. They both sat in silence until Adrien cleared his throat.

"Hi, I'm cat-boy," he introduced himself simply. "And I was definitely flirting with you in those emails."

"Guess this fucks up the anonymity clause," she blurted out before slapping her hand across her mouth. His face slowly morphed into a smile before breaking, letting his musical laughter waltz through the room.

"I didn't give you any notes I wouldn't have if you had sent the paper to me earlier and I don't grade the midterms anyway. But I guess I will have to tell Plagg that I can't be your TA anymore," his eyes slanted, full of mischief. "Can't be canoodling with my students now, can I?"

Marinette saw the challenge in his eyes and leaned forward, propping her chin up on her hand as she looked at him with her own smirk.

"We're canoodling now, are we?" She watched as his face went white, his eyes starting to dart around her face as if looking for some signal he'd missed.

"Chaton," she leaned over, placing a hand on his cheek. "Stop. Yes, I'd love to...to canoodle with you. As long as we can stop saying the word _canoodle_ ," she trailed off in a laugh but fell silent when he reached over to run his fingers through her hair,his hand coming to rest at the base of her neck.

"Agreed," he replied with a smile. "There's no pun op- _purr_ -tunity in that word anyway."

She squeezed her eyes shut for a brief moment, grimacing at his response.

"I'm stuck with the puns now, aren't I?"

He smiled, leaning in and whispering the words as he neared her lips.

"We're a package deal, and now you're stuck with me. Until you get sick of me, that is," he continued, moving closer with each word.

"Just keep bringing me coffee, barista-cat-boy."

"Forever," he promised, his smile radiant as he eyelids fell shut at their proximity.

She smiled in earnest then, closing the distance remaining between them, savoring the warmth of his lips against hers and the tenderness of his touch as his hand moved to cradle the back of her head. She pulled back ever so slightly to respond.

"Until the ends of the earth."


End file.
